So...whats for dinner?
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The tree removal crew are here and are busy doing things outside, like laying down plywood to drive over with monster vehicles. The whole process is making me nervous.
I share the queasy anxiety over the state of things in our country. New Orleans has been the scene of very peaceful demonstrations but that gets little coverage.
Dinner last night was a grilled pork steak, fried rice and tossed salad.
Tonight will be a take out pizza.
Departure planned for tomorrow morning.
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Carole, you and I are on the same food page. Last night was grilled pork steak and tonight is takeout pizza.
Adding to the list of things I’m anxious about is the home inspection happening this morning.
Safe travels Carole
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Dinner here has not been very creative of late. Last evening was waffles.
Nance, good luck with the house inspection, always a bit of tense time even when you know you have taken good care of the place!
Carole, careful and safe travels. Take care of yourselves, p!ease.
Tense times although somewhat predictable. The tensions of being isolated, concerned about a potentially lethal disease, weather heating up, economic worries -- all that was needed was a triggering event. Please all, do your best to stay safe.
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Carole - hope the tree removal is going well. And hope you'll have a chance to let us know the results before you take to the road. In any case, safe trip. How did the house inspections go Nance?
Dinner will be zucchini sauteed in EVOO and butter with onions, fresh mushrooms and some left over Rotisserie chicken tossed in for good measure. Thinking about rice on the side.
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Minus, I think it went well. The guy kept commenting on how well maintained the house was. We’ll see what he writes up.
Brought home pizza from the next town over where we looked at a rental house. We get it half bake then finish it here. I think tomorrow on my weekly trip to the grocery store I’ll get stuff for pasta primavera.
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Bob, working from home today, went to Whole Foods (windows boarded-over as a precaution) to pick up a rotisserie chicken, but they closed at 3pm. Hoping the little takeout joint around the block stays open long enough. Might order out for pizza, from whatever is still open (I'll just eat the toppings), or even cook pasta. (Regular spaghetti for Bob, shirataki or zoodles for me). All I've been able to eat today was a fried egg and black coffee. Only reason I will even eat anything tonight is to keep my metabolism from slowing down into "starvation mode."
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I made Crockpot stew of meat carrots and potatoes, that way us meat and non-meat eaters could all enjoy same dish, often I make multiple dishes for me and hubby, picky son, and vegetarian daughter. Good thing I like cooking
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Bob ventured around the corner to the mediocre pan-Asian joint and brought back egg rolls (for him), hot & sour soup, shrimp,chicken, veg. stir-fry (sauces on the side), chicken satays, fried rice (a freebie) and one container each of brown & white rice. I must admit I had some of the fried rice.
Meanwhile, there was a peaceful march from Lake Shore Dr. to Wilson westward, then down Clark to Belmont--it was within a block of Gordy's house. He reports it was just chanting. Now there seems to be a standoff at Broadway & Wilson--just under three miles south of here. Heard a very loud boom earlier in the evening--but no sirens, glass breaking or screaming, so it was likely a cherry bomb set off in a dumpster. Up in Evanston, a Best Buy was hit twice (last night & this afternoon) and despite being boarded up, a Target. Whole Foods here boarded over its windows last night and was open only till 3pm today. I only hope my neighborhood isn't one of those "soft spots" our Mayor warned might be vulnerable because police were unlikely to be deployed to non-obvious targets. But Walgreens & CVS (not ours...yet) have been favorite targets of looters--who, after the peaceful demonstrators go home, move in (many in SUVs missing license plates but leaving on telltale advertising badges from out-of-state dealerships), covered up from head to toe and bearing iron batons, sledgehammers and baseball bats. One guy from downstate Galesburg, IL was busted in Minneapolis with a carload of explosive devices, boxes of rocks, bricks, truncheons and a police-scanner & jamming equipment.
Hope we wake up to an intact neighborhood.
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Hello, ladies, I have been following the situation in US, I hope nothing is happening near where you live, although in Chicago a friend posted pictures of N Milwaukee Ave last night where our FB chemo group took a stoll during our Chicago reunion, the store we visited had broken windows and completely looted. Awful. I really hope all this will be over soon, thinking of you.
We had 28C yesterday in Stockholm but it is only 18C and will continue like this through the rest of the week, which is a good thing, because hot flashes are a b... Past two weeks we had two parties for my youngest who turned 14, just imagine she was 11 when I got diagnosed and I thought it was it for me... I know 14 is not that old either, but it is not 11 and I am happy. For her pary with figure skating girls we ordered pizza and for the one with the friends from school, whom we entertained for the entire day, we first sent them to have hotel breakfast downtown, I am working with Commodity Travel, ))) or have been, it is sort of on hiatus now)), so I have a lot of free hotel breakfasts to offer; later when the girls came to our place, I made broiled cheeseburgers with wild garlic and smoked pimiento spice I ordered online, with caramelized onions that they devoured and I retired to my floor with my burger and strategically stashed a bottle of riesling.
Last Sunday was Mother's Day, I got a bunch of peonies, prosecco and made fake Chinese duck, great recipe, easy to make, very delicious, will post pictures.
Today it is going to be Persian kebab made of organic minced meat with rice, yogurt sauce, grilled tomatoes and sumak. I will also go and pick my mailorder from an Oriental website that is selling Asian products. Ordered both Kikkoman and mushroom soy sauce, rice paper for fried and fresh rolls and the dip sauce for the fresh ones, Chinese dried Wood Ear Mushrooms, five speces, tamarind paste, matchatea, canned enoki, hoisin sauce, pho spice mix
))) We are going Asian at home. DD1, who broke up with her boyfriend and temporarily moved back home, is very excited and so am I.I will post some pictures now))
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The duck
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ChiSandy, I will post more picture, just for you, but I am sure we are not speaking about the same truffles. The white one, Tuber magnatum from Italy, Croatia, Albania and the black one, Tuber melanosporum, from France and Spain, are not found in Sweden. Here we have black summer and fall truffle, Tuber aestivum, that is mainly found on the island of Gotland. Now, I am very into mushrooms, but I am not an expert, but last fall I joined a three-day group training with a cerified edible mushroom expert in the south-western part of country where we stayed in a most beautiful cottage lake with the most beautiful bernersenner owner's dog and got to pick mushrooms on private marks, although here you can do it according to the law, no matter whether it is private or not. After that the mushroom expert met on the island of Gotland for the Gotland truffle festival. The expert arranges annual trips to Croatia to pick white truffles, but she never participated in the Gotland truffle hunt. We were both disappointed, and I mean, I am not a specialist, but the fact that she was, says it all. Everything was poorly organized, the hunt itself was a lot of talking and like 15 min of hunting, the talking was boaring, the doggo was the best. The local truffle, tuber aestivum has a lot of aroma, I bought five pieces, the smell took over my entire large Volvo suv. The taste though, it tasted like carboard or bark, we were both disappointed. But it did well in butter. I ike the mushroom expert very much, my only problem is that even though I told her that I had cancer, every time she drinks and calls me, she repeats like five times during the conversation: you know, my mom died in cancer two weeks before my graduation.. I know she means well, or I don't know what she means, but I told her I was not much for talking on the phone, which is sort of true, and now we just write to each other on mssngr. But here are pics for you)
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Cherry, the duck looks so succulent and yummy! I don't care for the taste of summer truffle, but I do like the aroma that "blooms" in oil & butter. Available here in jars. Eataly does carry the black melanosporum for one weekend in Nov. and white Alba in Dec. & Jan.--insanely expensive and very, very perishable, so I order the smallest one they'll sell me and use it up within 3-4 days before plopping the nub into a little container of olive oil in the fridge to pour over scrambled eggs or sauteed mushrooms. No reports of any looting of the Eataly store, despite it being in the targeted River North neighborhood. By Sunday all transit and car access to it was blocked.
Last night Bob brought home the usual "meh" Chinese food from the place around the corner (though they have a little pseudo-Japanese & Korean dishes, they cook the food of their native Fujian--which relies on dark, sweet, & salty sauces; he specified they be put on the side). I will make my own sauce tonight with peanut & sesame oil, ginger, garlic, five-spice powder, chili flakes, mirin and maybe a tiny bit of cornstarch slurry: I tried eating the chicken, shrimp & veg plain last night and it was bland.
Down to my last 2 slices of fresh(ish) low-carb bread. Not sure if its bakery is operational--and doesn't deliver to stores till late aft. today. But I have lots of it in the freezer, so will just have to toast slices as I need them. Made a BLT today for brunch.
Mayor says that despite the crowding in the demonstrations, the City will enter Phase 3 of the reopening tomorrow. 2 weeks from now, if there's the expected spike that puts our rolling positivity rate >20%, we might have to retreat.
Hot out today & tonight, so definitely no soup necessary!
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Carole - worrying about your drive - assuming you got off. Hope you get a chance to check in.
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ChiSandy, I learnt you cannot soak truffles in oil, the former gets poisonant, you have to hang a truffle over the oil to get it infused.
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To get the oil infused
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Well, i do get little bottles of truffle oil that have tiny pieces of truffle in them. Same thing with basil-infused olive oil. And that little "Truffle Pig" brand jar of black truffle pieces is packed in olive oil. So it may be that it's the wild truffles that haven't been rinsed and refrigerated that might be toxic. What I did hear was that any homemade herb-infused oils must either be immediately used or refrigerated and used up fairly quickly, or otherwise have been pasteurized (as many commercial oils are) or have the herbs filtered out before bottling. The concern is botulism.
Bob's clinic closed an hour early after reports that a currency exchange cater-corner from it had been hit. He got the heck out of there quickly, but reports that all he saw all the way home (9 miles) were some boarded-up stores (mostly pharmacies, phone & shoe stores & groceries) but no evidence that they had been looted. Nothing in my neighborhood was looted (at least not as of now), but Whole Foods boarded up its windows and closed at 4 pm today as a precaution. The phone store and antique mall were closed but not boarded up; Walgreens's & CVS were open & intact (but teeming with security guards, at least one carrying a taser). There is a large protest march (masked and social-distanced) headed south to the river (bridges are up). But it is peaceful. (Were I not at elevated risk due to age and asthma, I might have marched part of the way. But I'm not leaving my home & yard except for prescriptions I can't get delivered and appointments).
It is heartbreaking to hear from senior citizens on the S. and W. Sides who can't get their prescriptions. The city is working with the pharmacies' corporate offices to get those prescriptions express-mailed out postage-free should customers request it.
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I've been eating rotisserie chicken breast sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls for the lasts couple of days. YUM. Accompanied by a salad one day and by chocolate pudding the next day. Last night I polished off 1/2 a bag (oops - party size) of Ruffles w/Ridges. Well, I had to eat the last of the Hidden Valley Ranch Dip (w/sour cream) before it went bad. Sigh - I know, I could have used carrot sticks & cucumber slices, but...
Tonight will be zucchini 'zoodles' with meat sauce & mushrooms. I defrosted some of the sauce I bought & packaged before my favorite restaurant closed for good (two weeks before any hint of a shut down). May have to pair with Hawaiian rolls w/garlic butter.
Had a delicious rice last weekend. 7 Grain & Lentil Blend from Whole Foods. Perfect for two, or two meals for one.
Nance - did you "pass" inspections? Have you selected a place to move to? Lacey - did you get to the 1st BD party? Eric - hope the dentist visit was minor & your Grand Canyon journey is happening. What are you working on up there? Special - can you believe we're into hurricane season already?
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minus - I know, right? Hoping we have no hurricanes, I’m too tired... in mid-construction at DD’s house. New floor is down in the office, the beam (the one holding up the house) is not termite ridden - yay! - and can be clad in stained pine without being replaced. Water heater is now moved outside of the house, but not before the main shut off at the street seized and had to be replaced. Three different visits today from the City of Tampa utilities, all super polite and helpful, made a stressful situation easier because they were so nice. This phase of fixing should all be finished by end of week, but then have to deal with removing a 100 year old massive oak tree in the front yard damaged by the termites - thank goodness we have a friend in the tree removal business who is offering us a “friends and family” price, and replacing the windows - before there is a hurricane, lol! Window corners are pretty “porous” as they are original crank windows and this is an old house. Will install impact resistant ones - that combined with the cinder block exterior that has stood since 1957 should finish things for a while here. During this we had to replace our water heater, install an emergency shut off valve, and we resurfaced our 15,000 gallon pool at our house. I need a nap... Hoping things are pracefulhere over the weekend, there are a number of demonstrations planned. We had rioting, looting, and fires between our house and DD’s on Saturday, we are 14 miles apart.
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Well, whatever's for dinner tonight isn't coming out or going into the kitchen fridge--it's dying (and the icemaker is dead). 2-yr-old LG, top-rated by Consumer Reports. Had the presence of mind to buy the extended warranty (its predecessor lasted only 7 yrs) this time. Repair guy coming tomorrow; hopefully, it'll just need a reset of its little computer "brain" (we never hooked it up to wi-fi)--because the motor is running, it might not be the compressor. We moved as much out of the fridge as was safe last night and put it in the barebones basement fridge, and have a dozen ice cubes almost ready to rock.
Unless Bob gets home early enough to dine on Cellars' patio (and it doesn't rain), I'll probably nuke some pouches of vegetarian Indian food.
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Wow! Special, I'm exhausted just reading your post! All that work and to know that you have a weather related deadline! Yikes! Hope you are taking several naps! Isn't it amazing to learn prices of tree removal! In our area, taking down a mature hardwood tree is in the thousands. In our NH neighborhood, the high hundreds. I now look at DS2s new “mature" property and hope his trees are healthy! As it is, they seem to be deciding to try to get the old bathrooms and dated kitchen (but perfectly functional, imho!) updated sooner rather than wait. Hope they understand what chaos they are in for, in addition to expense!
I think you've earned your general contractor badge, Special!So we did break our quarantine,(not even mask wearing since we've all been so careful for almost three months: hope it wasn't foolhardy)and brought Chinese dinner to DS2's on Sunday to celebrate baby Amelia's 1st birthday. It was a bit weird to be driving in traffic that was heading to march in Boston, while going to reunite with our grand. But this whole period in our lives is weird!
It broke my heart when she first saw us up close and started to cry and grabbed her mom's neck. But a moment later, she warmed right up to me and resumed the wonderful playful interactions we always shared. In the last three months, she has moved from a baby to a busy toddler, so we delighted in her new activities. She seemed to enjoy our intimate birthday “celebration", (reconnectIng with her “court jesters", which we are:) and had an extended family Zoom Birthday a few hours earlier. That could have been an SNL skit!
DDIL2 is great with design sets, so for the Zoom, she dressed her in a watermelon dress and decorated her highchair with that theme. The meaning, which I didn't realize for a while, alluded to A's large bald “melon" head which she inherits from her dad. Hopefully, as hair finally grows in she will lose that distinction! Here are a few BD pictures:
Oblivious to the Zoom birthday song Busy playing take and share, with a tiny piece of gift tissue
Above is preview pic DDIL2 sent of A. romping around in her Zoom birthday dress. Ha Ha! Not sure how the Minnie bow fits in! Last pic, A. looking for another cupcake. Didn't get it!
I was glad to have these images to look at after watching the broadcast all night of the understandable unrest in our country. I'm glad you all sound safe despite some being not far from the scary outbreaks and destruction after the peaceful demonstrations. I hope Carole will have the opportunity to check in to let us know how she is doing as their trip progresses.
Last night, we had sautéed chicken breasts over a medley of balsamic sautéed vegetables (Including my fave kale) and a sprinkling of chopped dried fruit on top. Sides were salad and baked sweet potatoes.
Okay....enough with the pix!
Leftovers tonight.
Somehow, during the entire Covid homebound time, I have never baked! I now have some overripe bananas which might become scones, (Thank you, NYT) and some peaches which will become peach crisp, soon.Stay safe in every way, all.
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Lacey - thanks for sharing the pictures. Such a cutie.
A friend passed along a recipe her family has made twice now & loves. Korean Grilled Chicken Breasts (from Skinnytaste). She marinates the chicken 24 hrs. I'll be trying that, but in the oven instead of a grill. Or maybe even with a stir fry.
And I've found a recipe from Southern Living that I want to try for Skillet Shrimp - One-pan shrimp Destin with Orzo. Looks easy and 'fresh' with lemon zest, scallions, garlic and dill.
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Oh Lacey, she is a cutie! So glad you got to visit.
Haven’t heard any inspection reports yet. Our buyer is in Texas and his realtor is here so that may slow things down a bit. Tomorrow we’re going to look at some short term leasing large apartments that sound ideal.
Tonight was the aforementioned pasta primavera and garlic bread
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What a cutie-pie, Lacey--so great you got to visit!
We went to Cellars and ate on its patio--Bob had the blue cheese meatloaf and I had the salmon Caesar. (Brought home leftovers, but enough room for them in the basement fridge). Kitchen fridge definitely dead, though the stuff in its freezer is still solid.
We're hoping to eat brunch with Gordy & Leslie this Sunday if he has the day off.
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It's Thursday and we've had local takeout three times this week for dinner 😂 Since they're all local restaurants I feel no guilt. Ok maybe a little
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Crazy eating today. A hard boiled egg after my walk. Then a slice of lemon loaf cake to celebrate my niece's b-day long distance. Two Hawaiian sweet rolls with the last of the rotisserie chicken breast for lunch. Dinner was supposed to be a responsible spinach salad. Instead it was Ruffles w/Ridges to finish off the sour cream ranch dip and then a bowl of macaroni with butter. Followed by 1/2 a cup of Hagen Daas Dulce de Leche ice cream and finally a gin & tonic while I visited with a friend. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.
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Enjoyed all the pictures. What a cute little girl!
Nance, I was driving when we passed through your town. I thought about you and your dh. I feel a little sad for you as you leave your house which I'm sure is quite lovely.
Our trip went well. The two motels weren't crowded and the traffic wasn't heavy in the cities we passed through, including Minneapolis. We arrived at Pine Hollow yesterday, early afternoon. Last night we slept with windows open and had to pull up a blanket before morning. It was 60 degrees this morning.
I have discovered only one puzzling evidence of what I assume is mouse destruction. The folded quilt comforter up on a shelf in the closet was shredded in an area of about 8 inches square and the stuffing pulled out. But there was no mouse poop anywhere to be seen. Very mysterious. I haven't seen any sign of mouse occupancy anywhere else. I always put out lots of sheets of Bounce and other anti-mouse kits. I regret the ruin of the comforter because it was pricey and very pretty.
Today I will continue moving in, transferring stuff from cargo trailer to the 5th wheel camper, and also make a trip to town.
Dinner last night was broasted chicken from Clancy's restaurant and a side of cole slaw. The chicken was delicious. The coleslaw was edible.
DH's birthday is Monday the 8th. I made a dinner reservation at Boulders in Walker, about a 40 minute drive. It's a lovely, excellent restaurant and has a nice patio dining option.
Along the way on our trip we wore our masks when we ventured outside the truck. There were other people wearing masks, others not wearing them. It's spotty. Yesterday afternoon our neighbor Mary had quite a gathering of our resort neighbors on her deck. We did not join them. They were definitely not observing social distancing. So far there isn't a recorded case of Covid in this county, Hubbard. I don't know if there has been any testing either. But summer will be bringing in people from outside the county.
No dinner menu for tonight.
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Carole - thanks for reporting in. Glad you're safely relocated for the summer.
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